


Hit the right tone: The Date

by PrinceofBadassery



Series: Hit the right tone [2]
Category: Captain America (Comics), Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Canon Disabled Character, F/M, First Date, amputee!Bucky, discussion of car accidents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-19
Updated: 2014-11-19
Packaged: 2018-02-26 07:58:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2644178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinceofBadassery/pseuds/PrinceofBadassery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after the events of "Hit the right tone". Natasha and Bucky go on their date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hit the right tone: The Date

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MamaMcCallMe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MamaMcCallMe/gifts).



> You don't have to read the other story, but it probably helps with some of the references. Natasha and Bucky are neighbors. Bucky shares an apartment with Steve and one day Natasha catches him stealing the newspaper from a neighbor and they end up on a date later that day.

“Looking sharp.” Natasha greeted him as soon as he stepped out the door. She had changed as well, switching the sport shorts for equally short jeans and the shirt to a blank tank top with a gloved hand holding a spider on it. She added a red flannel shirt, with the sleeves rolled up. Her black ankle boots with what looked like a four inch heel at least put her on the perfect height to head-butt Bucky in the nose. She had also curled her hair and it fell in soft waves around her face. A black hat, perched precariously on the back of her head, topped her outfit off.

“Uh.” Bucky stuttered. “You have to thank my roommate, if it weren’t for him I’d walk around dressed like a hobo most of the time.” He chuckled. “You look amazing.”

“Thank you and I’ll do that when you introduce us.” She smiled. “Shall we?” She gestured down the hallway and Bucky nodded.

Once they were outside he offered her his arm and she took it and started leading the way to the café she had told him about.

“So how long have you been planning to ambush me like that?”

“A couple of weeks at least, but an opportunity offered itself only recently when I noticed you’d get the newspaper every now and then. The neighbor’s newspaper even. Don’t think I haven’t noticed that. Who reads newspapers in this day and age anyway?”

“Steve, my roommate, he loves old-fashioned stuff, but in his defense, he mostly uses it for his art projects and only very rarely actually reads it. And of course, our neighbor reads newspapers on the days I’m not stealing them.” He grins down at her.

“Do you even know them?” She raises an eyebrow at him.

Bucky shrugged his left shoulder. “Nah, and they don’t know who’s stealing their newspaper, so it’s all good.”

“You fiend.”

“Hey, I’m not the one who stalked their neighbor for weeks to ask them out on a date, not that I’m complaining.”

They had only walked a couple of blocks when Natasha suddenly stopped and pointed across the street.

“We’re here.”

The little café was almost invisibly nestled between a dry-cleaner and an antique shop.

“How on earth have I never seen this before? Steve must have dragged me to that antique shop at least a dozen times already.”

Natasha patted his arm. “Don’t worry, you’re not alone. I actually had this recommended to me as well and I needed three tries to find it because I walked right by it the first two times.”

“Huh.” Bucky stared a little dumbfounded at the little shop with the crumbling paint and crooked sign that read ‘The Bus’.

They crossed the street and Bucky held open the door for Natasha. Despite its appearance the shop was bustling with people and they had to wait in line a good fifteen minutes. They spent the time arguing about who the poor neighbor was who suffered from constant newspaper disappearances.

“I’m telling you, it’s not Fury. Fury doesn’t read anything , he doesn’t need to. He just stares into your soul and knows things.”

They lucked out and captured a table by the tiny window just as the previous occupants left. Bucky with cappuccino and Natasha with a pumpkin spice latte and a chocolate muffin.

“Alright, not Fury then.” Natasha said. “That rules out everybody I know of though, it’s probably one of the guys on the lower floors whom I’ve never seen.” She shrugged and took a sip from her coffee. “One day you’ll get caught and then we’ll know.”

“I don’t get caught. I’m a ninja.”

“In boxer shorts and one sock.”

“It’s part of my disguise.”

“So can I ask?”

“Ask what?” Bucky slurped at his cappuccino, leaving him with a cream mustache. Natasha laughed and rolled her eyes at him, before he managed to wipe it away.

“About that?” She pointed to his pinned up left sleeve. He looked down into his coffee and frowned.

“Or too soon? Not a good topic for a first date?”

He shook his head and looked up at her, giving her a small smile. “Nah, it’s fine. Car accident when I as five. Drunk driver pushed our car off the road, my parents didn’t make it, but my sister and I survived.”

Bucky shrugged. “Well, mostly I guess.” He nodded down at his shoulder. “My sister was fine. She went to live with her aunt and uncle before I was even out of the hospital and I ended up in foster care.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah.” Bucky laughed dryly. “And while all the other kids got adopted eventually, nobody wanted damaged goods, so I was shuffled from one foster family to another.” He sipped some more of his coffee.

“But I met Steve in foster care, so it’s not all bad. Pretty sure you didn’t want to hear all that, but that was my tragic childhood story. What’s yours?”

Natasha broke a piece of muffin off and put it in her mouth, she chewed slowly while looking out of the window. She swallowed and smiled a little sadly before looking up and meeting Bucky’s eyes again.

“I was born in Russia. When I was three my parents enrolled me in a private dance academy.” She took a sip from her coffee.

“Those academies, they’re like prisons and barely legal. I saw my parents twice a year while I was there and I’m pretty sure I forgot I had parents at all at some point, it was all just training, learning, becoming the perfect ballerina. As soon as I was old enough to be on stage I danced leads in the children ballet then joined the corps de ballet at the Bolshoi when I was 15. At 17 I came to the states joined the NYC ballet and I’ve been here ever since.”

“And your parents?”

“Probably forgot about me at this point.” Natasha shrugged and bit into her muffin again.

“No contact at all?”

“Nope.”

“That’s rough. I mean, my parents are gone too, but they didn’t choose to, you know, not be there. To actually make the conscious decision to leave your kid alone, that’s about as shitty as you can get as a parent.”

They sipped their coffees in silence for a while, each lost in their own thoughts.

“That was depressing.” Bucky broke the silence after a few awkward minutes.

“Agreed.”

They looked at each other and suddenly started to laugh at the same time. Natasha chuckling very unladylike and Bucky emitting weird grunting noises to actually keep from laughing out too loud and disturb the other customers. They didn’t quite succeed and earned a few confused looks.

“Maybe we should go.” Natasha suggested and drank the last few drops from her mug.

“Probably a good idea.” Bucky agreed and emptied his cup as well.

They stumbled out of the establishment together and Bucky immediately put his arm around Natasha’s shoulder and she responded by putting her arm around his waist. They turned back towards their apartment building.

“I’m going to drag Steve to one of your shows soon. I’d like to see you in action and I think Steve’d enjoy it too.”

“Oh great, then somebody finally makes use of that discount thing for friends and family that I get each year.”

“None of your friends want to see you?” Bucky suddenly stopped in middle of the sidewalk and Natasha pulled him aside quickly before anybody could bump into them.

“I have a few friends here, but nobody was actually ever interested in what I do and previous boyfriends always backed out last minute and most of the time they didn’t even want to go in the first place. Ballet is kind of uncool in this day and age.”

Bucky huffed. “How would they know they don’t like it if they don’t at least watch it once?” He shook his head and started walking again.

“How many of those discount things do you have?” He asked after a while, catching Natasha by surprise.

“Five I think.” She pouted. “Maybe more since I didn’t use the ones from previous years? I honestly have no idea.”

“You should check, and then we’ll make it a party. Steve knows a ton of people who enjoy the arts and I promise they’ll behave.” He chuckled.

“That’d actually be really nice. I’ve never actually had someone I know watch me while dancing.” She leaned into his side. “Even though my parents shipped me off to dance school, they never bothered to show up to a performance.”

“That’s ridiculous.” Bucky shook his head in disbelief.

They spend the rest of the walk in comfortable silence, arms wrapped around each other and they ended up in front of Bucky’s apartment door way too soon.

Bucky rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Guess this is it. I had a great time. This was the first time I’ve been on a date in a while, so I hope I didn’t mess up too much.” He gave her a lopsided grin.

“Nah, you did good. And I haven’t exactly had much practice either, so it’s fine.” Natasha smiled at him and took a step closer, wrapping her arms around his neck. Her eyes traveled from his eyes to his lips and back up again and Bucky knew what was coming next. He was sure he wanted it, but wasn’t sure if he was ready for it. He held onto the small of her back with his hand and leaned down.

They both closed their eyes as their lips met in a short and sweet kiss, lips slightly moving against each other before they broke apart again, both grinning.

“We should do this again some time.” Natasha said, taking a step backwards towards her apartment door.

“We really should.” Bucky laughed. “Just don’t wait till I ran around the house in my underwear next time. Knocking would work too.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Natasha said cheekily before disappearing into her apartment.

Bucky quickly unlocked his own door and slipped inside only to find Steve sitting at the kitchen table grinning at him. Elbows propped up on the table and chin resting on his folded hands.

“Tell me everything.”

 


End file.
